The Wildlife...A Visual

Well, giving you a look at the social scene, I hope you have a general idea of what I have experienced with that.  I would really like to give you some visuals of my surroundings...maybe soon I can get some photos posted, so you can have a real visual.  At the Re-Member site, it is dry and empty.  There are no trees, and no grass.  There are weeds and dirt, thats about it.  Seems awful right?  But its not.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.  Every night has a different sky.  I have already seen my fair share of rainbows, storms, sunsets and sunrises, dirt devels (mini tornadoes), and beautiful night skies.  It is heaven.  If you look to the horizon, you can clearly see why our location is called Pine Ridge, because the distant ridge line is covered with pine trees.  It is also beautiful.  In our nearby pasture, we have horses and cows.  It has become pretty funny to listen to the cows each night....they make more than just 'moo' sounds, I can tell you that.  It is so hard to think of this part of the world as being so poor and helpless when it has all of this beauty.  But we are still here doing what we can.

Today I had my first encounter with a rattlesnake.  It was pretty scary, I'm gonna tell you, but it was also really cool.  The only problem was that we are supposed to kill the rattlesnakes if we were to come across them.  Not bull snakes or anything, but specifically the rattlers.  About three weeks ago, Jerome High Horse killed a rattle snake by chopping off its head and then keeping the rattle so he could make a shaker out of it.  After hearing that he did that, I thought I would have no problem with it.  But I did.  Even though I was a little scared of it, it was also beautiful.  I watched for probably 15 minutes before anything happened.  It was so cool.  Then I didn't have the guts to kill it, so me and some of the others that were there got one of our other interns to do it, and he had no problem killing the poor thing.  I felt really guilty after that, so I buried it.  

Yesterday we were working at a work site, and i encountered something that tore my heart out.  We were fixing the skirting around a Naomi's home and also installing a stove pipe.  They had a nice home, and also a beautiful dog.  It's not every day that you encounter someone who has well kept dog in their family.  Here, the dogs are known as the 'Rez Dogs'.  No one is allowed to touch them or give them any attention.  However, I had an issue this particular day.  As I sat in the grass petting Angel (Naomi's dog) I heard a little whimper off to the side.  I turned around a right in front of me sat an eight week old Rez Dog.  I nearly cried at the sight of him.  It was black and brown, and covered with mange.  I don't think this dog had a bite to eat in its time of living, it was skin and bone.  I looked closer and it was covered in fleas and ticks.  It's little bark was pathetic, if you could even consider it a bark.  I just couldn't stand it.  I asked Naomi who it belonged to and she said it was the neighbors, and they had a whole litter of them, and each was in the same condition.  Not only was I sad, but also a little angered by it.  Mom and Dad, if you are reading this, I think we may have a new family member...no not really, but I would like to figure out a way to rescue the poor thing.  It followed me all day long.

Well, besides that stuff, I am loving it here.  Everything is still great, and I am missing home, but everything has been a lesson learned.  I can't wait to share more stories.